Canada seeks industry, not consumer input on secret treaty

The controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has been shrouded in …

ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated by wealthy nations, continues to make headlines due the secrecy surrounding its drafting. Despite the fact that the agreement may include provisions like ISP filtering that are likely to affect huge numbers of people, no draft of the treaty is available. What's worse, there appears to be a worrying trend among governments to consult early and often with copyright holders and only later let the public in on the action.

That appears to be especially true in Canada, where law professor Michael Geist found that the government had put together a group of "insiders" to advise on the treaty. Included, of course, were representatives of the recording, video game, and movie businesses; not included were privacy representatives, NGOs, or digital society groups.

Geist revealed the existence of the group in a Toronto Star column this week, based on documents he received under Canada's "Access to Information Act" (similar to the US Freedom of Information Act).

According to his information, the "Intellectual Property and Trade Advisory Group" was planned to include 12 government departments and 14 industry groups, and all would be a part of "in-depth exchanges on technical negotiating issues." In other words, they would be brought in to hash out the nitty-gritty of the treaty, which means they would direct input into its formation and access to the negotiators.

It makes sense to invite affected parties in to consult on legislation; they certainly know their business better than the government and are in the best position to understand the effects of legislation. But that means all affected parties. At least the US, while still releasing few details about the fast-tracked negotiations, has solicited public comment and has made those comments publicly available. That's how we know, for instance, that the MPAA favors jamming some kind of "three strikes and you're off the Internet" law into the agreement, while the RIAA wants to criminalize even noncommercial piracy.

ACTA negotiations are going on today, in fact, at an important three-day Washington meeting that wrapped up today. IP Justice, an NGO that deals with such issues, obtained a leaked memo (PDF) that "concerned business groups" submitted to "ACTA negotiators." It's nothing particularly sinister, and doesn't appear concerned with the Internet issues that have so interested some copyright holders, but it shows just how organized the business lobby is. (A previously leaked RIAA memo showed that Big Content has been leaning on negotiators for months, too.

Such important changes to public policy need robust public debate; let's hope Canadians, Americans, Europeans, and everyone else gets some before the treaty is signed.